Governor Brown Signs AB 1506, Giving Employers an Opportunity to Cure Certain PAGA Violations

On October 2, 2015, Governor Brown signed AB 1506 which amends California’s Private Attorney General Act (“PAGA”) to allow employers the cure certain pay stub violations which otherwise could have triggered PAGA liability.

Under existing California law, an employer must present each employee with an itemized pay stub that includes all the required information — like the employer’s name and address, the pay period, the pay rate, the total hours worked, all deductions, the net wages earned, and accrued and used sick leave.  If an employer violates this law by failing or refusing to provide a stub with all of this required information, California’s PAGA law gives that employee the right to sue the employer for the violation and collect penalties on behalf of all affected employees.

With the passage of AB 1506, an employer is now given the opportunity to cure its failure to include the pay period and the employer’s proper name and address on the pay stub.  Now, before an employee can sue under PAGA for the violation, that employee has to give the employer notice of the violation.  The employer would then have 33 days to cure the violation by providing corrected wage statements to all employees for each pay period in the prior 3 years.

Importantly, the new law limits an employer’s cure rights to only once in any 12-month period for the same violation.

AB 1506 was signed as “urgency” legislation, which means that it takes effect immediately.

You can read AB 1506 here.